perf(tui): defer EmbeddedTuiBackend import, drop dead warmup helpers (#84701)

* perf(tui): skip plugin-aware config validation on remote TUI startup

Cold `openclaw tui` against a remote gateway was synchronously calling
loadPluginMetadataSnapshot() via getRuntimeConfig() -> loadConfig() ->
validateConfigObjectWithPlugins(), pulling the full plugin metadata
snapshot (200k+ file reads) onto the TUI's event loop. The TUI itself
never consumes plugin metadata in remote mode; it queries the gateway
over RPC. The work was being done purely to validate the config and
then thrown away.

Thread an opt-in `skipPluginValidation` flag through getRuntimeConfig()
and loadConfig() (createConfigIO already supports pluginValidation: "skip";
it just wasn't reachable from the runtime entrypoints). The TUI passes
skipPluginValidation: !isLocalMode so:

- Remote-mode TUI: no plugin metadata load, no event-loop freeze after
  first render
- Embedded (--local) mode: unchanged; the in-process agent runtime
  still gets a fully validated config

* remove verbose comments

* perf(tui): move context cache warmup from module top-level to embedded backend

agents/context.ts fired ensureContextWindowCacheLoaded() unconditionally
at module-eval time for non-skip-listed CLI commands. The TUI transitively
imports this module, so the warmup ran on every TUI startup including
remote-mode, cascading into ensureOpenClawModelsJson -> resolveImplicitProviders
-> runProviderCatalog and dominating the cold-start freeze (CPU profile
showed ~55s of resolveProviderSyntheticAuthWithPlugin, lstat, open, etc.).

It also pre-emptively called getRuntimeConfig() without skipPluginValidation,
pinning the full snapshot and nullifying the skip flag added on this branch.

Remove the top-level side effect and trigger the warmup explicitly from
EmbeddedTuiBackend.start(), which only runs when an in-process agent
runtime actually needs the cache.

* perf(tui): defer EmbeddedTuiBackend import until local mode

* refactor(agents): remove dead context-cache warmup helpers

src/agents/context.lookup.test.ts

@@ -201,44 +201,6 @@ describe("lookupContextTokens", () => {
     expect(secondLoadConfigMock).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
   });
 
-  it("only warms eagerly for real openclaw startup commands that need model metadata", async () => {
-    const { shouldEagerWarmContextWindowCache } = await importContextModule();
-
-    expect(shouldEagerWarmContextWindowCache(["node", "openclaw", "chat"])).toBe(true);
-    expect(shouldEagerWarmContextWindowCache(["node", "openclaw", "chat", "--help"])).toBe(false);
-    expect(
-      shouldEagerWarmContextWindowCache(["node", "openclaw", "matrix", "encryption", "help"]),
-    ).toBe(false);
-    expect(shouldEagerWarmContextWindowCache(["node", "openclaw", "help", "matrix"])).toBe(false);
-    expect(
-      shouldEagerWarmContextWindowCache(["node", "openclaw", "browser", "status", "--help"]),
-    ).toBe(false);
-    expect(
-      shouldEagerWarmContextWindowCache([
-        "node",
-        "openclaw",
-        "--profile",
-        "--",
-        "config",
-        "validate",
-      ]),
-    ).toBe(false);
-    expect(shouldEagerWarmContextWindowCache(["node", "openclaw", "logs", "--limit", "5"])).toBe(
-      false,
-    );
-    expect(
-      shouldEagerWarmContextWindowCache(["node", "openclaw", "memory", "search", "--json"]),
-    ).toBe(false);
-    expect(shouldEagerWarmContextWindowCache(["node", "openclaw", "message", "read"])).toBe(false);
-    expect(shouldEagerWarmContextWindowCache(["node", "openclaw", "status", "--json"])).toBe(false);
-    expect(shouldEagerWarmContextWindowCache(["node", "openclaw", "sessions", "--json"])).toBe(
-      false,
-    );
-    expect(
-      shouldEagerWarmContextWindowCache(["node", "scripts/test-built-plugin-singleton.mjs"]),
-    ).toBe(false);
-  });
-
   it("retries config loading after backoff when an initial load fails", async () => {
     vi.useFakeTimers();
     const loadConfigMock = vi

src/agents/context.ts

@@ -1,12 +1,9 @@
 // Lazy-load pi-coding-agent model metadata so we can infer context windows when
 // the agent reports a model id. This includes custom models.json entries.
 
-import path from "node:path";
-import { isHelpOrVersionInvocation } from "../cli/argv.js";
 import { getRuntimeConfig } from "../config/config.js";
 import type { OpenClawConfig } from "../config/types.openclaw.js";
 import { computeBackoff, type BackoffPolicy } from "../infra/backoff.js";
-import { consumeRootOptionToken, FLAG_TERMINATOR } from "../infra/cli-root-options.js";
 import { normalizeLowercaseStringOrEmpty } from "../shared/string-coerce.js";
 import { resolveDefaultAgentDir } from "./agent-scope.js";
 import { lookupCachedContextTokens, MODEL_CONTEXT_TOKEN_CACHE } from "./context-cache.js";
@@ -108,82 +105,6 @@ function loadModelsConfigRuntime() {
   return CONTEXT_WINDOW_RUNTIME_STATE.modelsConfigRuntimeLoader.load();
 }
 
-function isLikelyOpenClawCliProcess(argv: string[] = process.argv): boolean {
-  const entryBasename = normalizeLowercaseStringOrEmpty(path.basename(argv[1] ?? ""));
-  return (
-    entryBasename === "openclaw" ||
-    entryBasename === "openclaw.mjs" ||
-    entryBasename === "entry.js" ||
-    entryBasename === "entry.mjs"
-  );
-}
-
-function getCommandPathFromArgv(argv: string[]): string[] {
-  const args = argv.slice(2);
-  const tokens: string[] = [];
-  for (let i = 0; i < args.length; i += 1) {
-    const arg = args[i];
-    if (!arg || arg === FLAG_TERMINATOR) {
-      break;
-    }
-    const consumed = consumeRootOptionToken(args, i);
-    if (consumed > 0) {
-      i += consumed - 1;
-      continue;
-    }
-    if (arg.startsWith("-")) {
-      continue;
-    }
-    tokens.push(arg);
-    if (tokens.length >= 2) {
-      break;
-    }
-  }
-  return tokens;
-}
-
-const SKIP_EAGER_WARMUP_PRIMARY_COMMANDS = new Set([
-  "agent",
-  "backup",
-  "browser",
-  "completion",
-  "config",
-  "directory",
-  "doctor",
-  "gateway",
-  "health",
-  "hooks",
-  "logs",
-  "memory",
-  "message",
-  "models",
-  "pairing",
-  "plugins",
-  "secrets",
-  "sessions",
-  "status",
-  "update",
-  "webhooks",
-]);
-
-export function shouldEagerWarmContextWindowCache(argv: string[] = process.argv): boolean {
-  // Keep this gate tied to the real OpenClaw CLI entrypoints.
-  //
-  // This module can also land inside shared dist chunks that are imported from
-  // plugin-sdk/library surfaces during smoke tests and plugin loading. If we do
-  // eager warmup for those generic Node script imports, merely importing the
-  // built plugin-sdk can call ensureOpenClawModelsJson(), which cascades into
-  // plugin discovery and breaks dist/source singleton assumptions.
-  if (!isLikelyOpenClawCliProcess(argv)) {
-    return false;
-  }
-  if (isHelpOrVersionInvocation(argv)) {
-    return false;
-  }
-  const [primary] = getCommandPathFromArgv(argv);
-  return Boolean(primary) && !SKIP_EAGER_WARMUP_PRIMARY_COMMANDS.has(primary);
-}
-
 function primeConfiguredContextWindows(): OpenClawConfig | undefined {
   if (CONTEXT_WINDOW_RUNTIME_STATE.configuredConfig) {
     applyConfiguredContextWindows({

src/tui/tui.ts

@@ -28,7 +28,6 @@ import { normalizeLowercaseStringOrEmpty } from "../shared/string-coerce.js";
 import { getSlashCommands } from "./commands.js";
 import { ChatLog } from "./components/chat-log.js";
 import { CustomEditor } from "./components/custom-editor.js";
-import { EmbeddedTuiBackend } from "./embedded-backend.js";
 import { GatewayChatClient } from "./gateway-chat.js";
 import { editorTheme, theme } from "./theme/theme.js";
 import type { TuiBackend } from "./tui-backend.js";
@@ -665,15 +664,19 @@ export async function runTui(opts: RunTuiOptions): Promise<TuiResult> {
     localBtwRunIds.clear();
   };
 
-  const client: TuiBackend = opts.backend
-    ? opts.backend
-    : opts.local
-      ? new EmbeddedTuiBackend()
-      : await GatewayChatClient.connect({
-          url: opts.url,
-          token: opts.token,
-          password: opts.password,
-        });
+  let client: TuiBackend;
+  if (opts.backend) {
+    client = opts.backend;
+  } else if (opts.local) {
+    const { EmbeddedTuiBackend } = await import("./embedded-backend.js");
+    client = new EmbeddedTuiBackend();
+  } else {
+    client = await GatewayChatClient.connect({
+      url: opts.url,
+      token: opts.token,
+      password: opts.password,
+    });
+  }
   const previousConsoleSubsystemFilter = isLocalMode
     ? loggingState.consoleSubsystemFilter
       ? [...loggingState.consoleSubsystemFilter]